The Beginning of Our Story

Saturday, January 5, 2013

The Last Few Days

I got a sentence or two into this post, and ran out of time to write it before Nathaniel was born, so I'm trying to remember everything, but I can tell you that I don't!

Well, we finally had the tour of Woodwinds that I had been wanting to do (Tuesday, December 11th), except it wasn't at all what I wanted, and our tour guide, Julianne, was no good. At one point we asked a question, and we were right next to one of the nurses's station on the Labor & Delivery floor. Julianne gave us an answer and the nurse sitting there gave her a look like she was crazy.

While we were there, I got a call from Comprehensive letting me know that Dr. Mahan was out on delivery at St. John's. We ended up rescheduling with Dr. Nelson for about 15 minutes later than our original appointment time. So after our uninformative tour of Woodwinds, we headed across the highway to Comprehensive.

Dr. Nelson is still not a favorite of mine. I've seen her twice now, and both times she seemed to be in a rush to get in and get out, like she didn't have time for her patients.

On our way out, I asked if Dr. Mahan had any openings or cancellations for the next week, since I wanted to see her one last time before the c-section. I lucked out, and was able to switch my last appointment to her only open slot.

When we got home, I posted on Facebook about how I was more nervous to go under the knife after my tour than I was before. One of my friends, Ame, messaged me about getting in contact with some of her nurse friends at Woodwinds. On Thursday, I called Julie, the charge nurse on the Labor & Delivery floor, and she told me that I was on her list to call today, but she was in the middle of a delivery and would call me back. She did, and she gave me a much better "tour" over the phone, than Julianne did taking us around the hospital. She answered most of my questions, and the ones she couldn't answer, she knew who to talk to get an answer. One of the questions I had, well, more of a request, was that Adam be allowed to be in the OR with me when I got the spinal, and the possibility of me laying down instead of sitting up when he did the spinal. Jill said she'd talk to the anesthesiologist and get back to me. She also recommended using one of their volunteer doulas, especially if Adam wasn't allowed in the OR. After talking to Jill, I felt so much better about going into surgery. I still really didn't want to get "sliced & diced," but I felt more at ease in having to go into it.

Dr. Douglas Dubink, the anesthesiologist that would be in on my surgery called me also after Jill had talked to him. I told him about my concerns of how I needed Adam in the room, and how I would probably do better laying down to get the spinal than sitting up. After talking to him for a little while, he was okay with Adam being in the OR for the spinal, but said if he passed out that he would miss the birth of his son. I told him I wasn't concerned since he stood up to peer over the drape when they were pulling Danni out of me. (I think he was less concerned then too.) He explained about how it is easier for him to place the spinal when people are sitting up rather than laying down, but if I really thought I needed to lay down, he could do it that way too. We decided to make that call on the day of the birth.

Jill also called me back to make sure that Dr. Dubink had called me, and to see if I had any other questions. Dr. Dubink actually came in her office while she was on the phone with me, and so she put me on speaker so I could ask one more question. With Danni, the anesthesiologist had said that their nurses were great photographers, so I asked if the same were true at Woodwinds. He assured me that someone would be able to take pictures in the OR for us, but it would probably not be him or his nurse. Jill also suggested that I contact Julie, one of the volunteer doulas at Woodwinds, that would be on call that day. She said that Julie would be willing to come in a little early to be with us for the prep and surgery. She gave me her phone number to contact her ahead of time, but I never got around to calling her.

After talking to all these wonderful people at Woodwinds, I felt much more at ease going into the c-section. I still really didn't want to do it, but I felt that it would be a better experience than Danielle's birth in the OR.